Full Circle
by stevebond1990
Summary: Rimmer never took to the role of 'Ace' very well. It left him hollow, longing for stability, eventually he found it after he trained a successful replacement. He never regretted giving that life up, not even in the darkest days of the Earth-Minbari War. But after an accident he's back where he started, coming Full Circle.


Full Circle

Chapter 1

"Arnold!" a thin faced, brown haired man looked up from the deck plates he'd been staring at unseeingly for the past three hours, clutching the Medal EarthForce thought would comfort him after the loss of all his friends, an etched metal monument to his failure to save them. A failure that cut even deeper with the fact he'd spent twenty years as a dimension hopping, womanising, walking cliché _Space Hero,_ a pretty damn good one too, but as he looked up the grief and mourning etched into his face changed to disbelief, "Jeff?"

"It's me, Warhawk," the approaching man assured.

"But the Minbari?" Lieutenant Rimmer asked, standing to meet his friend, "I saw your Fury disabled and taken aboard! Just before I blacked out!"

"I don't know what happened," Squadron Leader Jeffrey Sinclair answered, "I blacked out before my fighter was hauled aboard, I don't remember anything from the following twenty four hours though."

"Minbari might have kept you sedated," Rimmer suggested.

"Maybe," Sinclair admitted, though not entirely convinced.

Rimmer smiled and gave Sinclair a quick hug that Sinclair returned briefly, "I thought I was alone… the only one left."

"You're not alone," Sinclair replied.

"Bill, Quinton, Jake… They might still be alive if I'd been faster, if I'd been…"

"Stop It!" Sinclair ordered, "It couldn't be helped, You Know That! Minbari fighters are faster, stronger, more agile than our Furies, good pilots can only compensate so much for deficiencies in their fighters, we were outclassed in every way. Everyone knew that when we launched, we all knew we might not come back, we definitely knew it was the last time we would all be together."

Sinclair's voice became softer, "I know how you feel Arnold, I Know. But if we dwell on it, we'll just destroy ourselves over the what ifs. We have to move on, we must never forget them, but we must move on."

Rimmer nodded tiredly, "I'll try Jeff, but… it hurts, every time I close my eyes…"

"I know, I know," Sinclair says comfortingly, "Come on, let's head to the mess." Rimmer nods, pockets his medal and follows Sinclair toward the mess.

* * *

_February 2250_

"_All Squadrons, this is Mars Station, Raiders in bound, they slipped through Io Station's line, your orders are to stop them cold, good hunting people."_

"_Alright, all Wings form up. Delta Wing on me,"_ Sinclair ordered as the 361st left the station launch bays_, "Delta Seven, you're my Wingman; we'll swing round and flank them from above and behind on the left, Deltas Eight and Nine you'll back us up. Deltas Two, Three, Eleven and Twelve, you'll mirror us on the right flank. The rest of you will proceed between both elements and engage from the front."_

"Copy Delta Leader," Rimmer acknowledged, "I'm on your Four."

"_Roger Delta Leader," "Confirmed Delta Leader,"_ most of the squadron replied after Rimmer.

"_We read you Delta Leader, we've got your back,"_ Ensign Mark Sterling, Delta Eight replied.

"_Copy Delta Leader," _Ensign Ariel Evans, Delta Nine replied, _"Hear that Warhawk, I'm not letting your arse out of my sight."_

"In another world, Spitfire, I'd gladly switch places and return the favour," Rimmer replied, grinning as he imagined the slim and curvy brunettes face, she'd been flirting with him since she was assigned as a replacement and he had rarely responded in kind, mostly because of the fairly fresh wounds from the Line but also due to her young age. Now he knew the woman and had come to like her enough to ignore the age gap and begin teasing back.

"_Ohhh, Promises, promises,"_ Nine replied teasingly, still not quite used to her crush teasing back, but quickly recovering.

"_Ok, cut the chatter you two,"_ Sinclair ordered.

"_Yeah, get a room you two_," Eight agreed.

"_I like the sound of that, don't you Arnold?"_ Evans asked.

"Sorry Evans, shouldn't dinner come first?" Rimmer replied smoothly, "You know I'm an old fashioned kind of guy."

There was a soft squeak as Sinclair and Sterling laughed, it was a badly kept secret that despite her constant flirting with Rimmer, Evans was a Romantic at heart.

"_Rimmer-1, Evans- Zero,"_ Sterling teased.

"_I'll get you for that, Rimmer,"_ Evans muttered after a minute.

"Ouch, Last names, Evans? Then I guess you won't be joining me for a romantic stroll through the Botanical Gardens later, where ever shall I find a date?" Rimmer replied in mock sadness.

Another silence from Evans.

"_Rimmer-Deux, Evans- Nada,"_ Sterling teased again.

"_Alright, cut the chatter, ten minutes to target,"_ Sinclair declared, exercising his authority.

"Confirmed, Ten minutes to Intercept, let's tighten up, people," Rimmer responded, his demeanour changing to serious professionalism.

"_Target confirmed, twenty Raiders, four of them are trailing smoke."_

"_So they didn't get past Io unscathed, pick your targets."_

Rimmer selected primary, secondary and tertiary targets on his HUD, something he'd drilled into several squadron members over the past year as it helped keep track of the enemy, then linked in to the Battlenet, the HUD lighting up with targeting signatures, several changing as their picked up by other squadron members.

"_All right, five minutes, you know the plan, break and engage."_

The squadron split into three elements, the centre being twice the size of the two groups of flankers, the flankers rising quickly above the battle.

Rimmer watched through the canopy, they were close enough that he could make out exhaust plumes from several Raider fighters and a single smoke trail. After three minutes the flankers levelled out.

"_Delta Six to Delta Leader, Enemy engaged!"_

It descended into chaos from there.

The Furies jinked and spun in space as the Raiders passed, the delta winged craft banking and diving like they would in an atmosphere plasma bolts and laser pulses flashed between the dancing fighters, the agile Earthforce craft nimbly dodging the enemy's fire, the large x-shaped craft, spun, flipped and rolled around the Raider craft.

Then an unlucky Fury spun to avoid a Raider diving on it from behind and flew into another targeting their wingman.

"_Fuck, I'm hit…"_

There was a bright flash, _"Oh God, Jammer!"_

"_Keep it toget…"_

"_Fourteen, on your Six!"_

"_I can't…"_

"_Flank Wings, engage!"_

The four pairs of Starfuries banked sharply, and dived into the melee below them, firing as they came into range. The Flankers dived in directly opposite the Raiders as the swung round for another pass, hesitating in surprise the Raiders lost seven fighters in the opening volley, then scattered like startled pigeons.

"_They're running scared!"_

"_All Wings, break and engage!"_

The Raiders were heading for open space, the Furies turned sharply, quickly pouncing on the fleeing craft, turning all but the three furthest to scrap.

"_Where are they going?"_

"_Yeah, that's away from the jump gate!"_

"_Keep your ey… Oh God, Rimmer Look Out!"_

A Jump point suddenly opened up behind the Raiders and in front of the lead Starfuries, Deltas Eight and Nine successfully pulled away, Delta Seven wasn't so lucky.

Usually when something is caught in an opening jump point, it is torn apart by the immense forces imparted.

Usually…

During the Earth/Minbari War, EarthForce had learned, purely by accident, that it was possible for a craft up to thirty metres in length, twenty metres wide and twelve metres tall to survive being caught in an opening Jump Point, the craft in question had been an older model of Landing Ship used by Pre-Unification British Marines dragged out of a museum to help evacuate civilians from Io.

It was part of a small convoy heading to Mars that was spotted by a Minbari _Tinashi_ Warfrigate and marked for a precision Jump Point attack.

The opening vortex destroyed half the convoy instantly, but the Landing Ship was just far enough away, in a _very_ small sweet zone, where it avoided the shearing forces of the opening vortex tearing a hole between dimensions but close enough to be caught by the forming Hyperspace channel, which promptly dragged it backwards into Hyperspace, narrowly missing the exiting Warcruiser, it was assumed lost with all souls by relief forces until it exited the Io Jump Gate an hour later.

Delta Seven tried to turn away, but was caught in that sweet spot between vortexes, the last thing Rimmer saw as the G-forces climbed inside his rapidly spinning Fury was a large barrel shaped ship passing close enough to clip his number two engine.

* * *

"Phew, it's hot enough in here that Satan could come here on his winter break," Cat commented, wiping his brow for the third time in five minutes.

"Hang on," Lister said, settling back against the duct wall opposite Kristine Kochanski, who was sitting on a hatch grate, Cat settling down across from the next hatch grate along, "If the power's dead, shouldn't it be getting colder?"

"Ma'am, are there any stellar bodies along our course?" Kryten asked, sounding like his guilt chip was kicking off.

"Nothing on our direct path," Kochanski answered.

"Anything else in the vicinity?" Kryten asks again.

"There's a small sun to the west…" Kochanski replied.

"Sirs, I think the backup generators' going down has knocked us off course and we're heading straight towards that sun," Kryten replied, then squeaked guiltily, "And it's all MY fault!"

"No it isn't…" Lister tried.

"It Is!" Kryten squeaked again.

"You were adjusting the thermostat and it overloaded…"

"It overloaded because _I_ typed in the override code…" Kryten confessed squeakily.

"You What?!" Lister demanded.

"When I saw you'd prepared Ms Kochanski's bath, I couldn't help it!" Kryten admitted, looking like he'd be crying if the function was built into his chassis, "I could just imagine her lying there, in thick soapy suds, scrubbing her back… oh, It was the Nova 5 all over again…. I knew it would grow from there and soon… I'd be all alone again!"

"Kryyyteeenn!" Kochanski groaned exasperatedly.

"I was Just. So. Scared!" Kryten whined.

Lister shook his head, "Look, we've got to…"

A thundering crash sent everyone flying towards the stern, Kryten into the wall, Lister into Kochanski and Cat into the hatch grate, resulting in both grates failing and sending those on top into the rooms below.

Kochanski squealed as Lister barrelled into her then squealed again as the grate collapsed beneath their combined weight, there was an odd flip and she landed on Lister, Hard, their lips crashing together as his head rebounded off a pile of old sacks and her head dropped with the sudden stop.

The two locked eyes in a brief moment of shock but something primal took over and the two quickly descended into a passionate, emotion charged kiss that continued until interrupted several minutes later.

"Mr Lister… Ms Kochanski… are you alright?" the couple broke apart and blushed like caught teens.

"We're fine Kryten, just a bit turned around!" Lister shouted up, silently thanking whatever God was listening the Android hadn't looked through the hatch, he then looked at Kochanski, "we need to talk later."

"Yes, we do," Kochanski replied, getting up.

"Kryten can you see the Cat?" Lister shouted, hoping to distract the android for a few more precious minutes.

"Dave, Listen!" the two listen carefully, even Kryten staying dead still…

Then they heard it, the Cat crying out between loud zapping sounds, they exchanged a glance, "Cat!"

"We have to get to him!" Lister ran back under the hatch and bent down to jump up.

"Sir, it would be faster to use the door," Kryten admitted sheepishly.

Lister and Kochanski stared, "What?!"

"I excluded the doors from the override," Kryten admitted squeakily, "In case anything happened."

"You mean, I spent all night crawling around in that hell hole when I could've just walked out that door at any moment!" Lister demanded angrily, his mood not helped when Kryten nodded guiltily.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, "Okay, once we're done with the Cat, I've got some serious reversing to do, but after that we'll discuss this over a cup of cocoa and a hot branding iron," Lister threatened as he punched in the door access code.

He rushed into the corridor and to the next door, Kochanski on his heels, and opened the door.

The door opened to reveal that Cat had apparently landed on the Matter Paddle, damaging it and making it discharge randomly.

As they watched, several pieces of furniture and cargo appeared and disappeared, the Cat changed outfits multiple times, even showing up in Rimmer's old green uniform as he bounced off the Port bulkhead at one point, before he started changing age, sex, then skin and hair colour, even turning into _The Dog_, before finally falling to the deck with the Matter Paddle buzzing angrily beside it.

Lister punted it and it phased through the bulkhead, he then rolled the Cat over and fell on his arse in shock.

Instead of the Pseudo-African American male they all knew and, sort of, loved was an attractive Caucasian female with Kochanski's skin tone and long brown hair the fell halfway down her back with four long dreadlock braids that fell over her shoulders, she was wearing a light brown cloth top over a red shirt, leather trousers and Leather boots with a three inch heel, a studded leather belt and two chains, one around her shoulders and the other hanging from her hip.

Her body possessed full, womanly curves but her arms and legs implied peak fitness, but it was the double layered swells on her chest that stumped Lister.

"Kris?" Lister asked uncertainly, "Does she…"

"Yes Dave, she has four breasts," Kochanski replied sharply, suddenly very conscious of her modest C-cups, she couldn't stop the slight swell of jealousy as her eyes roved over Fem Cats body. The upper pair of breasts, slightly higher on the chest than a normal human's, were at least a D-cup, the lower set, slightly separated from the upper so they weren't squashed, were a comfortably plump B-cup.

"Hey," Kochanski jumped slightly as Lister rested his hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry yourself, You Are Beautiful. So don't start thinking you need to compensate for something."

She couldn't help smiling as the jealousy faded, it was just what she needed to hear, "Thanks, Dave."

"Mr Lister… Ms Kochanski… are you two alright?" both turned around to see Kryten walk in, back in mother hen mode, with the left side of his head oddly squashed.

"We're fine, Kryten," Lister assured, then pointed to the new, and possibly improved, Cat, "Cat had an accident with the Matter Paddle, take her down to the med-bay for a check-up, then put her In an AR sim of the ship."

"Sir?" Kryten looked at Lister uncertainly.

"That way, when she wakes up she won't break anything important if she freaks out," Lister explained, he then turned to Kochanski, "come on Kris, I've got some major reversing to do and I want you to check out the damage from whatever hit us and maybe find whatever it was that hit us."

He then hurried out the door; Kochanski looked at Kryten then Cat before following him out.

* * *

On reaching the cockpit, Lister dived into the Port Pilot's seat and began the Cold Start sequence for the main engines; Kochanski sat in the Navigator's seat and began sensor sweeps of both Starbug and nearby space, having to grab hold of the console as Starbug banked sharply away from the nearby, relatively, sun and back onto their previous course.

"There's a dent the size of Kryten's head in the hull," she said out loud, "but nothing you can't pound out with a hammer."

"Any idea what caused it?" Lister asked as he ran a diagnostic to make sure the auto-pilot was functioning correctly.

"Not yet, wait!" Kochanski called out, "There, bearing 043 by 039… some kind of small craft, I'm reading one life sign."

"Open the cargo bay doors, we'll scope it up and apologise to the poor smegger," Lister said, bringing Starbug into a position to do just that.

"You do realise that, while the doors are big enough to allow entry, it is nearly half the size of the cockpit module," Kochanski pointed out warily.

"I was planning on putting it in cargo bay two," Lister retorted, opening the relevant cargo doors.

"Oh yes," Kochanski said in realisation, "The expansion caused by your little jaunt with the time drive."

"Yes that," Lister replied sarcastically, "That bay is big enough to hold a Starbug, one snubfighter won't be a problem."

The ship shuddered as the x-shaped fighter scraped a damaged engine against the door frame, then another shudder as gravity took hold, followed by a faint thud as the cargo bay doors closed.

"Right," Lister said, setting the auto-pilot and getting up, "Let's give the smegger a hand."

He then left the cockpit, heading for the cargo bay, Kochanski following and meeting a fidgety Kryten on the way.

"Ohhh… Sir, I've done as you asked and put Ms Cat in AR, but it seems wrong to do this," Kryten fretted.

"Don't worry, she'll understand once she wakes up," Lister said soothingly, stopping at the hatch to the cargo bay to make sure it was pressurised, "Come on."

He opened the door and stepped through onto an upper gantry, the only section not affected by the dimension change, the X-shaped fighter was immediately below, four large engines sat at the ends of each arm/wing, the one above and to the pilot's right was battered and the wing crumpled. Said pilot was slumped in his harness inside the cockpit.

Lister led the way down, sliding down the stairs and stopping below the fighter, making sure to avoid the front cannons, and looked for the release hatch for the canopy, finding it just as the others caught up.

The canopy popped forward with a hiss, moving forward and up at a thirty five degree angle thanks to a type of parallel linkage, once the canopy was clear, Lister leant in and undid the harness, then pulled the pilot out of the fighter and laid him on the ground.

"They're human, in case you want to know," Kochanski said as Lister laid the man down, looking at the steamed up face plate.

Lister glanced at her, he then unsealed the helmet and lifted it away, only to drop it in surprise.

"Smegging Hell!" if the others hadn't shared the sentiment, they'd have stared at Ms _'Prim and Proper'_ Kochanski.

"How the Smeg did Rimmer become a pilot?" Lister asked disbelievingly.

"More importantly Sir, how'd he make it back without the Wildfire?" Kryten responded.

"Kryten, get him to medical," Lister ordered, "Same deal as Cat after," he added, noting the bloody wound across his former ship mate's forehead.

"Yes Sir," Kryten acknowledged, and promptly picked up the unconscious Earthforce pilot and left.

"Are you alright?" Kochanski asked, ralising she was more concerned than she'd normally feel."

"Is it really him?" Lister asked, sounding slightly lost, "More importantly, is it _our_ Rimmer? And if so, where'd he get such a cool ride and can I have a go?"

Kochanski had to smile as he went from lost to his normal self.


End file.
